Interface degradation of perovskite solar cells and its modification using an annealing-free TiO2 NPs layer

Interface is one of the most important factors to influence the device stability, which directly determines the commercialization of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The research disclosed the degradation process and mechanism of planar heterojunction (PHJ) PSCs with a structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/CH3NH3PbI3/PCBM/Al using in-situ experiments. The degradation of PHJ-PSCs is mainly attributed to the interface decay of perovskite/cathode. Large amount of bubbles formed quickly at the interface and grew up as PHJ-PSCs exposed to air. The cathode electrode easily peeled off from the devices that led to lose the efficiency completely after only 1 h exposure to air. On the other hand, the degradation driven by intrinsic decomposition of perovskite itself under atmosphere (humidity similar to 45 RH%) was not obvious and the power conversion efficiency (PCE) could retain almost the same when only the perovskite layer was exposed to air for 200 h. Furthermore, annealing-free TiO2 nanocrystalline particles (TiO2 NPs) as an interface modification layer was inserted into PHJ-PSCs and dramatically improved the stability, of which the PCEs retained over 75% of its initial values after exposure to air for 200 h. The results provide important information to understand the degradation of PSCs and the improvement of the stability, which may potentially accelerate the development and commercialization of PSCs. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.